Rival Sons Does Classic Rock Right With New Album, Pressure & Time

When will you get a greater flashback rock 'n' roll experience? I don't know.

If you were to take a musical snapshot
from the '70s with even its run-of-the mill arena rock bands, you'd
get a pretty clear idea of just how cool Rival Sons are. Like the
legitimacy of Black Crowes before them, Rival Sons have combined a
natural rock and roll appearance with an oft imitated musical style.
The thing is that so few bands these days possess the musical talents
to successfully pull off this very difficult emulation of
the golden age...or at least make some of us old-timers feel at home.
Rival Sons does this effortlessly.

Rival Sons formed in Los Angeles
sometime in 2008. Cutting their teeth and refining their craft of
bluesy rock, the kind that Led Zeppelin, Faces, and a hundred other
classic names reveled in decades before, Rival Sons soon “became”
the bands they convincingly emulated, much of it on the club
circuits.

The four-member band went on to record and self-release a
full length album, Before The Fire, using digital downloads as
the only means to distribute the album. A year later, in 2010, they
finally provided the album to a growing fan-base in CD form. The
30-minute, 11-track album even daringly followed a time format
reminiscent of those early years with short, rocking, radio-sized
tunes but throwing in a few extended tracks to lend to the “deep”
FM album style. So far, so good.

But goodness like Rival Sons cannot be
contained to a small audience for long. The band has opened shows
for Alice Cooper, Kid Rock, and Judas Priest, and has had a rousing
track (“Tell Me Something”) from their debut set played on
television. On June 20 (UK), and June 28 (US), the band released
their latest album, Pressure & Time, via heavy metal US label,
Earache Records.

Pressure & Time is a well produced
collection of ten original “classic rock” songs with the album
still clocking in at around the 30-minute mark. As a mark of
success, the cover was designed by noted artist Storm Thorgerson,
who has famously created the artwork for many bands including Pink
Floyd's The Dark Side of The Moon and Led Zeppelin's Presence. The
music of Pressure & Time, of course, is the proof of the
pudding. The album opens with a rollicking tune (“All Over the
Road”), a scorching intro to your new rock and roll obsession (if
classic '70s arena rock orbits your world). I'm currently fixed on
the title track, “Pressure & Time”, a Led Zeppelin-like song
that wants to be your friend. Simply, Pressure & Time is a
legitimate entry that shouts its intentions to be a part of the rock
phenomenon. I haven't seen a show by these guys but I can pretty
much say that if they were in the thick of it back in the '70s, this
album is a 35th Anniversary celebratory upgrade right now.

Rival Sons have the rock and roll
swagger down pat. If you remember the arena bands of the '70s, then
you know what this revivalist band brings to the game we lovingly
call rock and roll. It doesn't matter that this has been done
before. What matters is how good it's being done. With Rival Sons,
it's being aced - a rare trait all around.

Matt Rowe began his life with an AM radio, listening to anything that was considered music. Since, he has labored intently to build a collection of music, paring it down, rebuilding, and refining as he sees fit. His decided goal is to keep up with new music by panning for the nuggets among literal mountains…